Podcasts
Following on from the recent CPD theme another avenue for easily accessible CPD is podcasts. I have started to become a bit of a podcast enthusiast since starting phase 2. Mainly to fill my 2 hour commute after repeats of the Taylor Swift album became a bit too much. Clearly there is a wealth of podcasts out there and I have to confess that I have only recently realised it is a good way to get some CPD in. There aren’t a huge number of engineering ones that I have found so far but in the interests of kicking off a list that others could add to here are a few:
NFPA: This is from the National Fire Protection Association. The organization is based in the USA, where they are neurotic about fire, and provides updates on their codes and digs into other topics. I wager that the US are a way ahead of us in considering fire protection so it is worthy of a listen.
HVAC 360: You guessed it, it’s about HVAC. Presented by a commissioning agent he explores issues and technologies. I have listened to a couple and both were interesting.
Another potential is ‘The Civil Engineering Podcast’ though I haven’t listened to it.
One to avoid is ‘Engineers and Coffee’ as it appears to be about computer programming. I listened to about 10 minutes of one episode before I fully confirmed I had no idea what they were talking about. If you speak binary or java script then you might be able to keep up…
For a slightly wider audience ‘Freakonomics’ is an interesting podcast. It explores a wide range of interesting topics with a critical eye. If others have relevant ideas, add them to the comments.
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
Being a bit of an anti-Apple man, is there another way of listening to pod-casts?
Chris. I’m pretty sure you can get them in other smartphone formats. If you are a diehard Nokia 6210 user then you might have to listen to them on a computer media player which removes the convienience
Having listened to the podcasts do you think you are out of the woods?
Rich, I don’t think I’m ‘in the clear’ in my Wildest Dreams but it’s another Style of CPD to help reach the Wonderland of chartering.
I like your Style, hopefully your approach will fill in the Blank Space.
Henry,
Have you come across the Elide Fire Ball Extinguisher in your fire protection search?
http://elidefire.com.au/
Rich, hopefully I won’t Shake It Off as a habit when I get back to the UK. I Know Places on my way to work that had no decent radio signal out here, also podcasts are Clean with no ads.
Keeping it going will be no Mean feat once pace of army life returns. Just need to write it all up now. I’ve been good at logging Mine Back to December when I started phase 3, but need to look at what I did in phase 2 and before.
Just tried out one of the Engineering Commons Podcasts – slightly annoying, but that’s prob just down to the American accents but they is far too much waffle – they need to get to the point.
Fran, I’ll check out Engineering Commons. Some of them can be a little slow. I found that annoying at the start, however now I think that it is useful time for a bit of reflection on the key points.
I agree Henry, especially since we are into The Final Countdown and CPD logs will need submitting soon.
For the non E&M bunch I would recommend TCE Podcast you mention directly. Also note that UCL have put out a few podcasts called ‘keep it civil,’ which range from terrible to mildly interesting. Damo – I think there is a feature about your project on there.